They showed this mini-series again this weekend and once again, I found myself drawn in. I’ve always been a Colleen McCullough fan, and I read the book when I was in junior high, and when the mini-series came on during high school I was thrilled.
See, this is what mini-series based on books are supposed to be. None of this four-hour-spread-over-two-nights crap. When you get a book like The Thorn Birds (or Roots or Shogun) you need at LEAST six to eight hours to get it right. And even then, you’re going to skip stuff. But trying to cram it all in over four hours (Mists of Avalon on TNT was a perfect example) is just butchery.
I loved the music, I loved the acting, I loved the conflict, I loved the scenery, I loved the interplay, I loved the story. And except for Justine and Rain, there was no sappy happy ending.
They don’t make 'em like they used to.
I watched it too. My friend IMed me with “Guess what I’m watching! The Thornbirds!!!” So of course, I had to watch it too. I read the book in Jr High, but I never caught the full mini-series. I was only 1 when it first aired, after all…
Anywho, I loved it. It was all hot and angsty, and precisely what I love about a love story. I thought the acting was great (and it had a real, real chance of being over done and hammy), and the soundtrack was perfect, and the emotions were powerful, and oh yeah, it was hot.
And wrong.
I think that book and mini-series shaped a lot of young women’s thinking about sex and love. I know several people who can trace their kinks back to watching The Thornbirds in their formative years…
You know what other mini-series they play occasionally on cable that I also love?
Napolean and Josephine
I don’t remember (maybe because I was 15 and not paying attention) but was there a huge outcry from Catholics when this mini-series first came out?
I remember seeing the miniseries when it was first released. The reaction in Australia was one of amusement at the un-Australian “look and feel” to all of the outback scenes e.g. people wandering around without hats, references (I seem to recall) to “kangas” etc.
I had a high school teacher who said the only authentic Aussie accent in that show was Bryan Brown’s. Everyone else was British.
My wife and I nicknamed this one the Horn Birds. 
It was playing on the waiting area TV in the auto dealership as my car was being serviced on Saturday. And I’ve had the music playing in my head ever since.
Somewhat ironic that I was sitting there trying to read Colleen McCollough’s The October Horse at the time, and kept getting distracted.